OhSewCrafty Blog

It’s Christmas in July, at least in my stitching chair.  I started this stocking project for my son Oliver.  It’s a hefty project, so I’m not sure I will finish it before his first Christmas, but I doubt he’ll care much either way at 10 months old.  It’s a Dimensions Gold kit #8839, “Snowman & Friends”, stitched on 18 ct white aida. This pattern incorporates a lot of half cross stitch, which speeds up progress a bit.  Plenty of blended colors create some nice shading.

My tentative goal for this year is the bottom half the chart, which is actually more than half the project, this being a traditional stocking shape.  I hope to finish by Christmas 2015.  At close to 2 years old, he’ll probably want a personalized stocking to coordinate with Mommy’s and Daddy’s.

I’ve also been working on his knitted baby blanket.. the Tree of Life, in Knitpicks Comfy.  I finished the main body of the throw a long time ago, then stalled on the border… it’s a about 20 rows, repeated over and over, such a slog.  Thanks to Craft Day, I finally finished the border.  Though I considered using my sewing machine to speed up the process, I mattressed stitched on a motif or two and was smitten with the look.  So I will be hand sewing the whole thing.  I hope to finish by the time he’s 6 months old, which is less than a month away.  The sewing is around 25% complete.  This is certainly a reasonable goal, if only I can make myself work on it.  

For next time, I’d like to work on nursery decor projects, like the baby quilt, and a cardboard name sign. Plus another sewing project, a shopping cart cover.  Oliver is sitting up pretty well on his own now, and I think he would enjoy the vantage point of sitting in the cart (now I babywear him in the Ergo).